Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Kazakh counterpart Nursultan Nazarbaev signed a protocol in Moscow on 13 May on the equal division of three oil fields in the northern Caspian. Under that protocol, Russia and Kazakhstan will each have a 50 percent stake in developing the Kurmangazy, Tsentralnoe, and Khvalynskoe deposits. The protocol also defines the median line dividing the two countries\' respective sectors of the Caspian Sea, and thus augments a bilateral agreement signed in July 1998 on dividing the north Caspian seabed. (Interfax)